


Soulmate on the Rocks

by AniDragon



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, And it stops pretty much immediately, Basically it's the situation described in the summary, Bi Yuuri, Body Swap, Bottom Victor Nikiforov, Brief mentions of a minor being sexually active, But putting the warning there just to be safe, Dub-con ish?, Eventual Threesome, Gay Victor, Light Bondage, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Open Relationship, Phichit is that friend that doesn't hesitate to tell his platonic friends that he loves them, So like it's not on purpose?, Victor and Chris are friends-with-benefits, but only mentioned and not seen, if things go according to plan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-09-19 01:10:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9410837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniDragon/pseuds/AniDragon
Summary: When the youngest among a pair of soulmates turns 18, they swap bodies. Since the oldest has no idea when this is going to happen, sometimes the younger soulmate ends up in awkward situations.Or: That time Katsuki Yuuri discovered that Victor Nikiforov was his soulmate by swapping bodies with him while Victor was having sex.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanted details about the situation that prompted the dub con warning, check the bottom notes. Though if you've read the summary, it'll give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. While the situation will be referenced throughout the fic, if you wanted to avoid the actual scene, skip from "Oh, it should be-" to "True to his word"
> 
> This has only been lightly beta-read. And Phichit is either aged up or some sort of genius prodigy to be Yuuri's college roommate at a young age, because I wanted him to be in the fic.
> 
> Timeline-wise, this is assuming the series is set in the 2014 skating season, which sets this fic in 2008. I know most people set the main series in 2015 or 2016, but the dates of Yuuri's and Victor's birthdays worked out better for me this way.

Phichit woke up a very disgruntled Yuuri Katsuki just before 8am on November 29th.

Yuuri glared daggers at his roommate, momentarily forgetting that he’d specifically asked his friend to do this. It was _Saturday_ , and his _birthday_ , and he wanted to _sleep in_ , damnit.

When his cell phone alarm went off a few seconds later, he bit back his curses and looked at his phone in confusion.

“Happy eighteenth!” Phichit said with a grin while Yuuri fumbled to shut off the alarm. “Just 14 more minutes. Are you excited?”

That was when Yuuri’s brain caught up with him, and he remembered why he was awake at this ungodly hour on a weekend. Eighteen. The year he might swap bodies with his soulmate. He was born at 10:14pm in Hasetsu, which meant 8:14am in Detroit. Phichit, being a morning person and also fully aware of how late his roommate tended to sleep in on weekends, had promised to make sure Yuuri was awake when the switch happened.

 _If_ it happened.

“Watch us go through all of this only for me to be the oldest...” He grumbled, groping the end table next to his bed for his glasses and slipping them on. He yawned, and Phichit laughed.

“Don’t worry, if you don’t switch, I’ll let you go back to bed. Did you want to get dressed, or are you gonna let your soulmate see you in your PJs?”

Yuuri grunted as an answer, but shuffled over to his closet to grab the clothes Phichit had picked out for him in the interest of giving his soulmate a good first impression. He then continued his shuffle to the bathroom to get ready. He’d showered the night before so that he could sleep just that little bit longer, but still did a quick spot-clean with a washcloth before brushing his teeth and getting dressed.

He was decidedly more awake when he got back to his room. He flopped onto his bed and checked his phone to find he still had 4 minutes left before the potential switch.

Phichit was on his own bed and looking over at Yuuri with a large grin.

“What do you think they’ll be like?” He asked.

Yuuri shrugged. He’d pondered the question before, but there really was no way to know until the switch happened. Soulmates usually turned out to be romantic, but platonic soulmates weren’t unheard of. And even if they _did_ tend to lean towards romantic, Yuuri had no preference for gender. The only thing he knew for sure was that if the switch happened that morning, then his soulmate was older than him. The switch always happened when the youngest between them turned 18, and then on each of their birthdays until they met in person.

“Well, what are you _hoping_ for?” Phichit asked with a roll of his eyes.

“I guess...” Yuuri pondered. “I hope we’ll turn out to be romantic. I don’t care about gender, I just... Want someone who’ll love me, you know? Despite the anxious mess I can be sometimes.”

“Awww, Yuuri, I’m sure they will. This is someone who fate decided was perfect for you, remember? And besides, you’re easy to love.”

Yuuri only just managed not to blush – he knew Phichit meant it platonically, but he was never good at taking a compliment.

His friend took another look at his phone and his eyes widened. “Oh, it should be –”

Yuuri blinked, and suddenly found himself surrounded by heat.

He was face-down on a bed with a warm and heavy weight above him, and a strange, burning feeling in his lower body that he couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t unpleasant, in fact a hazy part of his head rather liked it, but it felt almost intrusive.

The warm weight above him was moving, and a sound like skin slapping skin accompanied the movement while the burn in his lower body – in his _ass_ , he now realized – grew, and Yuuri suddenly realized _exactly_ what was going on.

“Wait,” he started, trying to move only to realize his hand were caught on something. “Wait, _stop_.”

The body above him stopped it’s movement and a concerned male voice replied: “Everything alright, Victor? You usually like it rough.”

Yuuri tried not to think of the fact that in a few seconds he’d already learned _way_ more about his soulmate’s sex life than he’d ever expected to, and then he spoke quickly.

“I’m not... I’m not him, I’m his soulmate, we just swapped...”

Immediately, the man pulled out of him – and oh, wow, _that_ felt strange – and the warm weight pulled away. “Oh, _fuck_. I’m so sorry. I’ll... Let me just untie you, and I’ll get you something to cover up with.”

Untie? Oh, that’s why his arms were stuck...

True to his word, the man untied the piece of silk that was holding Yuuri’s arms to the headboard of the bed, letting him sit up in a more comfortable position. While Yuuri massaged his wrists, a thick blanket was placed over his shoulders, and he wrapped it around himself.

“I’m not sure where Victor’s clothes ended up, but that’ll have to do until I find them.”

Yuuri nodded, not trusting himself to move or speak more just yet. His heart was racing (unsurprising, considering the _activities_ his soulmate had just been doing), and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself while he heard his soulmate’s partner shuffling around the room for clothes.

 _It’s not my body_ , he told himself. He’d attended a seminar about a month back for those who would be turning 18 within the next few months, and they’d gone over possible complications that younger soulmates might encounter. The most common issue, it seemed, was to swap while their soulmate was driving, risking accidents. But they’d also mentioned other scenarios that could be uncomfortable. Sex  _had_ been mentioned as a possibility, one Yuuri now wished he’d taken more seriously, and the thing the seminar had emphasized was that anything that was happening at the time of the swap was happening to their  _soulmate’s_ body, and not their own.

 _It’s not my body_ , he repeated to himself, not expecting the words to help, but somehow, they did. His nerves calmed, and for a moment it was as if his anxiety didn’t even exist.

Not knowing how long  _that_ would last, he took stock of what he knew about his soulmate so far.

His soulmate was a man, and clearly liked men, as well. His soulmate’s name was Victor, which Yuuri couldn’t help but be amused by, considering his long-time admiration of Victor Nikiforov. He hoped this Victor didn’t mind sharing a name with his idol.

 _And he likes to be tied up and taken from behind_ , a hidden part of his mind supplied. Yuuri quickly quieted that part. Just because the timing of the swap was bad didn’t mean he should be focusing on his soulmate’s sex life.

“Did you want a glass of water?” The other man asked him

Yuuri turned to accept and thank the man, and his jaw dropped when he recognised him.

“You’re... Christophe Giacometti?!”

Christophe’s expression changed from concerned to amused. “Oh? You know who I am?”

Yuuri nodded. “I’m... um... I’m actually a skater, too, though I didn’t qualify for the Grand Prix series this year... Wait, does this mean we’re in Japan? You and Victor Nikiforov are skating for the NHK Trophy this weekend, aren’t you?”

Christophe placed the glass of water he’d been holding on the end table and threw some clothes onto the bed, his expression somehow seeming to get even _more_ amused. “We are.”

Yuuri laughed nervously. “Sorry, I know that’s a weird thing to focus on considering... Well... How I woke up here. But I’ve always admired Vi...” He paused as some of Christophe’s earlier words finally sunk in. “Victor. When I woke up here, you called me Victor.”

Christophe laughed. “There’s a mirror over in the hallway.”

Yuuri stumbled out of the bed, clutching the blankets around himself tightly, and ran the short distance to the hallway mirror. His breath caught in his throat when Victor Nikiforov’s face stared back at him.

This... This _had_ to be some kind of mistake, right? There was no way Victor Nikiforov was his soulmate.

 _That means Victor Nikiforov likes to be tied up and taken from behind_ , the unhelpful inner voice from earlier reminded him, and Yuuri blushed, watching the colour spread to Victor’s face in the mirror.

“So?” Christophe asked, lazily walking up next to him and resting an arm on his shoulder. “What do you think?”

“This can’t be real,” Yuuri mumbled.

“What’s your name, by the way? And are you a man or a woman?”

“My name is Yuuri,” he answered. “Yuuri Katsuki. And I’m a man.”

“Are you attracted to men?”

Yuuri nodded, “Yeah. Um... I’m bi.”

“Then lucky you,” Christophe winked, “Victor’s gay, so you’ll probably get to see him like this plenty in the future. He looks hot all debauched, doesn’t he?”

Yuuri couldn’t disagree. With his hair mussed up, a blush on his cheeks, a thin sheen of sweat covering him and, Yuuri now noticed, a few colourful bite marks and hickeys along his neck and collarbone, Victor looked gorgeous.

Yuuri turned his face away from the mirror, suddenly embarrassed. “I shouldn’t look at him like this.”

Christophe waved a hand. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. You’re his soulmate, after all.”

“Which I can still barely believe...” Yuuri shook his head, then turned back to head into the room. “But even so, we don’t know each other yet, and I’ve already seen enough of his private life.”

When he got to the bed, Yuuri spent an awkward moment wondering how he was going to put clothes on without seeing more of Victor than he already had. In the end, he opted to just get dressed with his eyes closed.

Once he was decent, Yuuri looked around until he found a notepad stamped with the hotel logo and a pen on the bedside table. He sat down, wincing a bit at the lingering soreness in his ass, and started writing out his contact information. Name, phone number, e-mail, Skype address... He wasn’t sure how Victor would prefer to communicate, but he was going to cover his bases.

 _If he even wants to communicate_ , Yuuri thought to himself. Chances were, someone like Victor Nikiforov would get bored with someone like Yuuri as a soulmate, but he’d probably want to at least speak to Yuuri first, even if it was only to arrange to meet to stop the switches.

Just as he was putting the notepad back on the table, he heard the faint noise of a familiar song. He turned to Christophe, who had a laptop open at the small table he’d taken a seat at. To Yuuri’s horror, he was watching a YouTube video of Yuuri’s free skate from regionals earlier that year.

“What are you...?” He asked, face on fire.

“Is this you?” Christophe asked. “Oh, you’re _cute_.”

Yuuri buried his face in his hands and groaned. He knew his skating wasn’t horrible, but for someone of Christophe’s level to watch it was embarrassing.

“Please don’t show that to Victor,” he mumbled into his hands.

“Why not? You’re not bad—Oh, except for that jump just now...”

Yuuri flopped back onto the bed. “I’d say to kill me now, but it wouldn’t be fair for Victor’s body to die from _my_ embarrassment.”

Christophe was ignoring him, watching the video intently. He whistled when he got to the part of the song that accompanied Yuuri's step sequence. “Now _that’s_ something. You could probably teach _me_ a thing or two. I bet your presentation score was amazing.”

“My technical score was awful, though. My jumps are really clumsy.”

“Well, that can be improved with practice,” Christophe dismissed his concerns with a wave. “But you’ve got a lot of potential. You might not have qualified for the Grand Prix series this year, but I’m sure you will soon. I bet you’ll do great at your nationals, at the least.”

“Okay, enough about my skating.” Yuuri sat up. “I’m supposed to be using these switches to learn more about _Victor_.”

Christophe sighed, but closed the computer and turned back to Yuuri. “I suppose... Though if you’re a fan, you probably already know a lot about him.”

“I know what the media says.” Yuuri shrugged. “Could you tell me what he’ like away from the press?”

“Hmm...” Christophe seemed to ponder the question a moment, “Well, he’s very friendly. It’s a bit of an act when he’s in front of the press, since they do tend to tire him out, but around people he trusts it’s genuine. What they won’t tell you is how absent minded he is, and how he doesn’t always think things through. It’s landed him in trouble in the past, and gotten him slapped more than once.” He said the words with an amused grin. “Nothing too serious, but it’s good for you to know if you want to try to get into a relationship with him. He doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body, so he’ll never hurt you intentionally, but...”

Yuuri looked down, “Do you think he’d _want_ to? Try a relationship with me, that is? I mean, just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean he should end things with you...” He’d seen more than one suggestive paparazzi photo of Victor and Christophe. Whether they were lovers or just close friends had always been a mystery before, but now that he had proof of the former...

_I suppose Phichit owes me twenty dollars..._

Christophe laughed. “Oh, what Victor and I have isn’t serious. Friends with benefits, really. Just something to relieve stress and sexual tension. He hasn’t shown interest in anything romantic with anyone before, but he could have been waiting for... Well, for you. We haven’t really talked about it.”

“Even so...” Yuuri shrugged. “With how busy he is, and how far away we live from each other, it’s likely we won’t meet for a while. And even once we do, there’s no guaranty anything will come of it. I have no plans to dictate his sex life. It’s none of my business.”

“And if he _wants_ it to be your business?”

Yuuri wasn’t sure what he thought about that. He’d barely wrapped his head around the idea of Victor being his soulmate, and in fact was quite sure he’d be having a proper freak out about it once he was back in his own body. But the idea that Victor might want to take things further than that? That he’d be interested in Yuuri sexually, or romantically?

“I guess that’s something I’ll have to discuss with him,” Yuuri said. “But I’m not about to get all jealous. If the two of you wanted to... well... continue, once he comes back, feel free.”

“Are you kidding? He’ll probably call you the second he gets back, and be up all night talking to you.”

Yuuri looked down. “Ah... Sorry.”

“Oh, it’s fine. Sex is fun, but this is _much_ more interesting.”

Yuuri nodded absentmindedly and reached for the glass of water Christophe had brought over earlier. How much longer was this switch going to last? Everyone said it was kind of random, and this one was starting to get awkward.

 _Starting?_ He thought to himself, Y _ou woke up in Victor Nikiforov’s body while he was tied to a bed post and getting fucked in the ass by Christophe Giacometti. It doesn’t get much more awkward than that._

“Say, are you into threesomes?”

Yuuri choked on the water. He coughed a few times before turning to Christophe, his face beet red. “Excuse me?!”

The man only looked a _little_ bit guilty. “Well, if you and Victor _do_ end up getting together, I was just wondering if you’d mind me joining you every once and while.”

Yuuri closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering. “I think it’s a bit too soon to consider that kind of thing.”

“Consider what kind of thing?”

Yuuri blinked his eyes open at the familiar, much more welcome voice, and almost cried in relief when he found himself looking at Phichit’s concerned face.

“Phichit! Oh, thank God!” He hugged his friend. “I can die in peace!”

Phichit pat him on the back. “Oh, you’re back? Are you okay? Victor mentioned he was in a bit of a situation before the switch...”

Yuuri pulled away and smiled reassuringly at his friend. “I’m fine, just embarrassed. Did Victor... erm... elaborate on what the situation was?”

“No... He said you were safe with someone he trusted, but that you’d be in for a shock.” Phichit rolled his eyes at that. “Beyond just who he was, that is. What, was he having sex or something?”

When Yuuri didn’t answer, simply averted his eyes, Phichit gasped loudly.

“YOU HAD SEX IN VICTOR NIKIFOROV’S BODY?!” He exclaimed.

“Only for like, a second!” Yuuri responded. “Christophe stopped as soon as I told him to!”

“Christophe?” Phichit asked, curious.

Yuuri nodded. “Christophe Giacometti.”

“That...” Phichit pondered for a moment, then sighed, “I suppose I owe you twenty dollars...”

Before Yuuri could respond, a notification went off on his laptop.

He blushed when he saw a Skype friend request from an unknown username. The only message was a heart emoticon.

"Is that Victor?!" Phichit asked, exited. "Add him!"

Yuuri accepted the request nervously, and his heart skipped a beat when a call came in, and he answered it to see his soulmate on the computer screen.

“V...Victor. Hi.”

“Yuuri! It’s so nice to meet you! Phichit told me so much about you, but I just had to talk to you myself. I’m glad you left your contact information. I just changed my phone number, and didn’t remember it... I left you my e-mail, but this is nicer!”

Yuuri nodded, and wondered how many times he was going to blush today.

“Oh, wow, Christophe was right, you _are_ shy! It’s cute!”

Victor was smiling, and Yuuri still couldn’t believe that this was happening.

“Listen, first things first, I am _so sorry_ about what I was doing when we swapped! That must have been _so_ uncomfortable for you!”

“It’s fine,” Yuuri assured him. “It’s not like you had any way of knowing we were going to swap. And it was awkward, but Christophe was quick to stop, so really, I’m fine. I should be the one apologizing for interrupting you.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Victor waved him off. “There are worst reasons to get cockblocked than finding out you have a soulmate!”

Victor kept chatting, seeming to be okay with doing most of the talking while Yuuri worked through his nerves. Yuuri did manage to reply every once and a while, and every time he did, a dreamy smile would grace Victor’s face.

 _That’s directed at me_ , Yuuri reminded himself, _Victor’s happy with me as his soulmate._

Part of him still didn’t want to believe it, but he squashed that part down, at least for now. He’d wallow in feelings of unworthiness later. Eventually, though, he realized what time it must have been in Japan.

“Shit, it’s past midnight there, isn’t it? I should let you go, you have your free skate tomorrow!”

Victor pouted. “But I want to keep talking to you.”

“You can call me again in the morning, okay?” Yuuri suggested. “And I’ll be sure to stay up to watch you skate.”

That seemed to be enough to bring the smile back to his face. “Okay! I’ll call you as soon as I have some free time! It was so nice to meet you, Yuuri.”

He blushed again, but at least it wasn’t from embarrassment this time. He found he was genuinely happy talking to Victor. “You too. Good luck tomorrow.”

After they hung up, Yuuri couldn’t help but smile wide and burry his face in his pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dub-con ish situation: Yuuri swaps bodies with Victor while Victor was on the recieving end of anal sex. He didn't consent to this happening, but also no one specifically caused it to happen, either, and Victor's partner stops once Yuuri asks him to. Yuuri is embarressed by the situation, but not traumatised.
> 
> I'm not sure how many chapters this will end up being. I know I definitely want to write a chapter exploring the swap from Victor's point of view, and I want to do another couple for the upcoming swap on Victor's birthday. I have a handful of ideas of where to go after that, but nothing really concrete, so I'll probably just play it by ear.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to SassySteter for looking over the sex scene in this chapter! It's my first attempt at not just skimming over it, so hopefully it's not too awkward. (If you want to skip it, stop at "it was no surprise when it happened again during the NHK Trophy" and skip to "Victor blinked his eyes open"

Victor was only a little disappointed when his 18th birthday came and went without him switching with his soulmate.

While he understood that this just meant he was the older of the two, he’d still been quite eager to meet the potential love of his life. But he could be patient. It’s not like he didn’t have other things to occupy his thoughts; Nationals were coming up, after all, then the European and Worlds championships. So he put his soulmate in the back of his mind. At least for now.

It was only at the banquet for the Worlds championship that his thoughts wandered back in that direction. He’d accepted a dance from a man – the male half of a pair skate couple from Italy – and been invited up to his room.

Victor blinked up at the man, knowing exactly what he meant the invitation to be. He felt his cheeks get hot. The man was certainly attractive, a fact which Victor had already noticed when he accepted to dance with him. He was older, probably too old for Victor, all things considered, but that wasn’t what made him hesitate.

“I... I don’t know...” Victor found himself admitting. “I’ve always thought I’d wait for my soulmate...”

“You’re the older half?” When Victor nodded, the man shook his head sadly. “You know you could end up waiting years, only for the bond to be platonic.”

Victor got the impression the man was speaking from experience. He knew it was possible, of course. Most soulmates were romantic, but platonic pairs existed, and their bonds were just as strong as romantic ones. And just from numbers alone, Victor knew chances were high that his soulmate could be a woman, or a straight man. It might even be someone who wasn’t born yet.

_But soulmates aren’t about numbers_ , he remembered his _babushka_ teaching him, _They’re about fate. It’s not a lottery_.

Victor smiled at the man, and shook his head. “I know, but... I’d still prefer to wait. For a little while, anyway.”

The man sighed, but nodded. “Alright. You’ll finish this dance with me, though, right?”

“Of course!” Victor smiled more genuinely.

Over the next couple of years, Victor found that saying no was getting more difficult.

He knew it wasn’t expected for the older soulmate to wait forever. Most only waited a year or two. Some didn’t wait at all, as he learned at the European Championships when he was 20, and overheard 17 year old Christophe Giacometti lamenting his difficulties in getting laid.

His eyes widened in surprise. Chris had entered the senior’s division two and a half years ago, only a year after Victor, and had previously seemed incredibly innocent.

_I suppose everyone grows up eventually_ , he thought in amusement.

“Aren’t you waiting for your soulmate?” He asked curiously.

“Why should I?” Chris replied. “My body belongs to me, not some soulmate I haven’t met yet. If fate picked this person out for me, then they’ll accept me as I am, no matter how many people I’ve slept with, won’t they?”

Victor hummed thoughtfully. He’d never really thought of it like that. “Do you think those of us who _do_ wait are just being foolish, then?”

Chris shook his head. “I’m sure you have your reasons. Can’t say I’m not a little disappointed, though. I certainly wouldn’t mind going a round or two with you.”

Victor blushed at the open offer, but still said no.

The next time they saw each other, it was at Worlds. Chris’s 18th birthday had come and gone, and he still hadn’t switched with his soulmate.

This time, when he offered, Victor said yes.

~*~

“Do you regret it?” Chris asked later while they were lounging in bed together.

“No,” Victor answered honestly, curling up against the other man’s side. “But... Part of me feels like I should.”

Chris ran a hand through Victor’s long hair, being careful not to snag on the tangles that had developed during their earlier activities. They were quiet for a moment before Chris finally spoke up.

“My parents aren’t soulmates,” he finally said. “Both of their soulmates are platonic. My father’s is his twin brother, and my mother’s is my older sister.”

Victor’s eyes widened, and he glanced up at Chris in surprise. “ _Your_ sister?”

Chris nodded. “My mother spent most of her life thinking she didn’t have a soulmate. But she didn’t let it stop her from living. If she had, she might never have had children, and her soulmate wouldn’t have even been born. There’s nothing wrong with finding it romantic to wait for your soulmate, but if you wait _too_ long, you’ll miss out.”

“Is that why you decided not to wait at all?” Victor asked.

“Mostly,” Chris shrugged. “I also... Well, I _like_ sex. It’s fun, and it doesn’t have to mean anything you don’t want it to mean. So long as my partner’s willing, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

Victor sat up slightly, leaning on his elbow to get a better look at Chris. He brought his free hand up to a love bite he’d left on the other man’s collarbone. “It _is_ pretty fun.”

Chris smirked. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. You’re not too sore?”

Victor squirmed his hips to check and winced. “A bit. I’m glad we did this _after_ the free skate.”

“Too sore for a second round?”

He froze, blushing slightly, and not wanting to answer. The truth was, he probably _was_ too sore, but Chris had been a fantastic first lover, and Victor really didn’t want the night to end.

Chris seemed to read his mind, and laughed. “Well, if you’re too sore to be on the receiving end, you could try topping.”

Victor laughed as well, then leaned up to place a kiss on Chris’s cheek. “You’ll have to walk me through it.”

“Gladly.”

~*~

Chris wasn’t the only casual lover Victor took over the next couple of years, though he was probably Victor’s favourite. Most of the others were hook-ups who’s names he didn’t know half the time. But they served the purpose of relieving sexual tension without the need to form an attachment.

Chris was different in the sense that the two _had_ formed an attachment as friends, but neither had any illusions about any romantic feelings. While Chris had made a good point about waiting too long for one’s soulmate, Victor still wasn’t ready to take the leap into dating. It wasn’t as if anyone had caught his attention anyway, what with him being so focused on his skating.

Still, despite the fact that they would classify themselves first and foremost as friends, Victor and Chris still ended up in bed together every time they were in the same city for competition, so it was no surprise when it happened again during the NHK Trophy.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until after the Free Skate?” Chris asked as he added a third finger in Victor’s ass. “Or are you just that desperate for my cock?”

“I can handle it,” Victor replied, then muffled a moan into the pillow.

Chris grabbed Victor’s hair with his free hand and pulled his head up. “Now, now, you know I like to hear you, _mon beau_.”

Victor hissed at the sensation. Having his hair pulled felt different now that it was shorter. It was rougher, with Chris now having no choice but to grip right at his scalp. He decided he liked it.

“Fuck,” he whined, pulling at the silk restraints that were tying his wrists to the headboard. “Chriiiis!”

“ _Oui_?” He asked teasingly, bending his finger just right and hitting Victor’s prostate.

This time Victor wasn’t able to muffle his moan. Chris chuckled and let go of his hair, then leaned over to kiss his neck, just bellow his ear.

“That’s better,” he whispered. “Now tell me what you want.”

“I want you to fuck me,” Victor begged. “ _S’il te plaît_ , Chris...”

Chris removed his fingers, and Victor tried not to whine again at the loss. He didn’t have to wait long, at least. He heard the crinkling of a condom wrapper, and after a moment felt the press of Chris’s cock against his entrance.

He let out a contented sigh as Chris pressed in slowly. He only gave Victor a few seconds to adjust before he started moving.

The thrusts were slow and shallow at first, and Victor closed his eyes and pushed his hips back to meet them, trying to encourage Chris to go faster. He heard the Swiss man chuckle behind him just before he suddenly picked up his pace, snapping his hips forward hard. The sounds of grunts and skin slapping skin filled the room, and then suddenly... stopped.

Victor blinked his eyes open, and instead of facing the headboard of a hotel bed, he was suddenly looking at an unfamiliar teenager.

He jerked backwards in surprise, looking around the room in confusion. He wasn’t in the hotel anymore, but in... someone’s bedroom, maybe?

“What?” He gasped out. “Where?”

“Hey, it’s okay.” The teenager in front of him said. “You just swapped with your soulmate.”

Victor looked at him incredulously. He’d... swapped? His eyes widened. “ _Now?!_ ”

The boy looked concerned, and Victor pushed down a wave of panic. Of all the situations he could have left his soulmate in...

“I need a phone!” He demanded, his breath coming in heavy. The boy in front of him held up his own phone and unlocked it before handing it over.

Victor opened up the calling app quickly but then froze.

He didn’t know his number.

He would have laughed had the situation not been so urgent. He’d switched phone companies just last week and hadn’t memorized his new number yet. And he’d never bothered memorizing Chris’s, relying on his address book...

“I... I don’t... I have a new number, and I don’t remember it.” He was hyperventilating, now, and felt the prickle of tears at the corner of his eyes.

“What’s going on? Is Yuuri going to be okay? Is he safe?”

Safe? Victor tried to take a deep breath, tried to _think_. He’d left his soulmate in a decidedly uncomfortable situation, but... He knew Chris, trusted him. As soon as he realized something was wrong, he would stop.

He nodded, but still couldn’t fight down the wave of panic. “He’s... He’ll be in for a shock, but he should be safe. He’s with someone I trust... But if I could just remember my damned _phone number_ , I could check to make sure...”

Why was he so fixated on his phone number?

“Listen,” the boy said, “I want you to take some deep breaths with me, okay? Yuuri has anxiety, and apparently that’s transferred to you while you’re in his body. But it’ll all be fine, just breathe, nice and slow...”

Anxiety? He’d seen someone have an anxiety attack before, but had never realized it felt like _this_ , as if he couldn’t breathe.

He focused on the boy in front of him, who had switched to a more calming voice. “Is it alright if I touch you? I just want to move your hand.”

Confused, Victor nodded.

The boy took Victor’s hand and placed it over his chest. “Okay, now I just need you to exhale slowly.”

Exhale? But he already didn’t have enough breath...

“You can’t breathe in right now because you haven’t exhaled yet. Just let it all out slowly, count to eight in your head while you do. That’s right, good job. Now in for four seconds, and hold for seven. Keep your hand right there on your chest, see? Your lungs are working fine.”

Victor followed the instructions as best he could. He felt the tears that were prickling his eyes fall, but to his amazement, his breathing evened out, and the wave of panic edged away.

“Better?” The boy asked after a moment.

Victor nodded, raising his hand to wipe his eyes, only for it to knock against a pair of glasses. He let out a small huff of laughter before lifting them and wiping his eyes with his other hand. “Yes. Thank you....?”

“Phichit,” the boy answered, extending his hand. “Phichit Chulanont. I’m Yuuri’s roommate. What’s your name?”

He took the hand and shook it. “Victor Nikiforov,” he answered without thinking.

Phichit’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

Victor chuckled nervously. “I, ah... I take it you follow figure skating then?”

Phichit simply glanced to a point behind Victor and motioned with his head.

Victor turned, curious, and suddenly found himself facing... Himself.

A _lot_ of himself.

“Oh.”

“Yuuri is... a bit of a fan. He’s always dreamed of skating on the same ice as you.”

“He’s a skater?” Victor turned back to Phichit, a smile tugging at his face.

“We both are!” Phichit smiled. “His name is Yuuri Katsuki. He won bronze for Japan in Worlds Juniors two years ago, though he hasn’t qualified for any international championships since going into seniors. I think he’s got a shot this year, though! He’s been doing really well in regionals.”

“Can I see him?”

Phichit nodded, then pointed. “Oh, right! There’s a mirror in the bathroom, right over there.”

Victor had meant his skating, but he supposed he could always look him up later. And he was curious about his soulmate’s appearance.

When he found the bathroom mirror, he couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter at the sight.

“Oh, wow,” he breathed.

Yuuri Katsuki was _beautiful_.

Behind the glasses (which he now noticed he’d smudged, earlier) were a pair of gorgeous brown eyes he was sure he’d find himself drowning in. He had a round face, and thick black hair, and while his body was mostly covered, Victor had seen enough male figure skaters to have a general idea of what it might look like.

But his eyes... Those were the part Victor kept going back to. He couldn’t help wondering just how they would look when it was actually Yuuri staring out from them instead of himself.

“What do you think?” Phichit asked from somewhere to his side.

“He’s beautiful,” Victor answered, eyes almost glued to the mirror.

Phichit laughed. “Damn, I should have recorded that. He’s never going to believe me when I tell him.”

“What, that he’s beautiful?” Victor asked, finally tearing his eyes away from the mirror to look back at Phichit.

“That _Victor Nikiforov_ finds him beautiful, specifically,” Phichit answered. “I tell him he’s beautiful all the time... Though he doesn’t usually believe that, either...”

“Oh,” Victor’s smile dropped, just a fraction. Being friends with Chris, he shouldn’t have just _assumed_ that Yuuri would have waited before forming other relationships. “So the two of you are...?”

“What?” Phichit seemed confused for a second, then quickly waved his hands frantically. “No, no, no! Yuuri and I aren’t together! Well, I mean, we made out once on a dare? But honestly it was weird, so nothing ever came of it.”

“Oh!” He said again, in relief this time.

Phichit laughed nervously. “I have a... thing, I guess? I’m an affectionate friend. I don’t see a point in _not_ telling my friends that they’re beautiful, or that I love them, you know? Life’s too short.”

Victor laughed as well and wandered back into the bedroom area. “No, that’s good! It’s a good philosophy, and I’m glad Yuuri has a friend who cares about him. As for him not believing that I said it, I’ll just have to tell him myself, won’t I?” He began looking around the room. “Have you got a piece of paper somewhere? I might not remember my phone number, but I can leave him my personal e-mail address, at least...”

“Sure, lemme just...” Phichit began digging in a bookbag that was sitting next to his bed, and pulled out a pen and paper after a moment. “Should have had this ready, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Victor waved the concern off with a smile. He quickly wrote his e-mail down, then frowned at his illegible handwriting before scratching it off and writing it down again more carefully. “I probably don’t need to tell you not to spread that around. My last personal e-mail got leaked, and it was a nightmare.”

“It won’t leave this room,” he promised as Victor handed the paper over. “And I know Yuuri won’t share it either.”

Victor nodded and sat back on Yuuri’s bed, looking up at the posters of himself. He knew he should be asking Phichit more about Yuuri, but he couldn’t think of what to ask. Instead, his mind turned back to the worry about how Yuuri was dealing with things back in Japan. Since he had bad anxiety...

Or, wait... _Would_ he still have anxiety right now? Since Victor had experienced an anxiety attack here in Yuuri’s body, then it stood to reason that Yuuri would at the very least be free from the physical symptoms while he was in Victor’s body. Still, even someone without anxiety might find it traumatic to suddenly end up in a sexual situation without warning like that, regardless of how quickly it stopped.

And even if the situation _didn’t_ traumatize him, there was always the chance that his soulmate would get jealous that Victor hadn’t waited for him. Even though most people wouldn’t expect someone to wait as long as four years, it was one thing to _know_ your soulmate had a lover, and another thing entirely to witness it first hand.

_I need to apologize to him_ , Victor thought to himself. Even though there was no way he could have known the swap was coming... Still, the idea of not apologizing didn’t sit well with him.

Would Yuuri leave his own contact information? If he didn’t, would he e-mail Victor? If he was angry at him, he might not... At least not right away. He probably would eventually, in order to stop the swaps from happening, but... Maybe Victor should leave a note along with his e-mail.

He was about to turn back to Phichit to ask for the paper back, but then with a blink he found himself looking at Chris instead.

He glanced around quickly, finding himself back in the hotel in Japan. He was relieved to see that he and Chris were both wearing clothes. And, while they weren’t sitting close to each other, Chris’s relaxed posture at the desk cleared away some of his worry about how Yuuri might have reacted to the situation.

“So I see you’ve met my soulmate?” He asked Chris.

“Oh, you’re back?” He grinned. “Your soulmate is really sweet. Kind of shy. _Really_ cute – I googled him.”

Victor smiled. Sweet and shy, huh? Yes, he could imagine that from what he’d seen of Yuuri. Still, a bad combination for the situation he’d swapped into. “Was he... He wasn’t too freaked out when he got here, was he?”

Chris shrugged. “He seemed alright? He was shocked, of course, but... I think finding out you were his soulmate was the bigger shock, to be honest.”

Victor chuckled. “He has posters of me all over his wall. Ah, damn! I should have signed one of them!”

“You’ll get another chance to,” Chris replied. “He wrote you something, by the way. I think it’s for you, anyway. I didn’t look at it.”

Victor glanced over to the bedside table and saw the note. He beamed when he saw it was Yuuri’s contact information.  
“He left his Skype username! You don’t mind if...?”

“Go ahead!” Chris waved off his concern. “I should head back to my room anyway, so I’ll give you two some privacy.”

“Thanks. Sorry tonight was cut short.”

“It’s fine,” he shrugged. “Contrary to popular belief, blue balls has never _actually_ killed anyone.”

As Chris made his way out of the hotel room, Victor quickly grabbed his laptop and opened Skype. He entered Yuuri’s username, and his heart skipped a beat when his request was accepted. He pressed the call button nervously, and smiled when Yuuri answered with video call.

_I was right. His eyes are even more beautiful when he’s the one looking out of them._

“V... Victor. Hi.” He answered nervously.

“Yuuri! It’s so nice to meet you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:
> 
> Babushka - Grandmother
> 
> Mon beau - My pretty, or my beautiful
> 
> Oui? - Yes?
> 
> S'il te plaît - Please


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait, everyone! This was one of those chapters that just didn't want to be written. X_x I'd also hoped to finish it before Mass Effect Andromeda came out and distracted me, but then the ten hour trial happened, plus the whole pre-launch drama... But now that I've finished my first playthrough and smooched my tol spiky girlfriend, I can start focusing more on fics again.
> 
> See bottom notes for mildly spoilery details about the added "open relationship" tag. But on a non-spoilery note: If you don't like open relationships, this is probably the point to turn back. "Don't like; Don't read", and all that.

It took less than two weeks for Victor to realize that he was hopelessly in love with Katsuki Yuuri.

He didn’t dare tell anyone. He’d mentioned to a few people that he’d had his first swap with his soulmate, of course – Yakov and a couple of rink mates, namely – but hadn’t mentioned the depth of his feelings to any of them. All they knew was that he’d been keeping in contact with the other man.

Of course, he wouldn’t have been able to hide _that_ even if he’d wanted to. He and Yuuri texted each other several times a day, to the point where Yakov threatened to confiscate his phone.

“For your information, this is _actually_ important!” Victor protested once. “My birthday is on the same weekend as both of our national championships, and we need to make sure our swap doesn’t interfere with either of us competing.”

It didn’t, of course. It was one of the first things they’d discussed, and had been relieved to find out that his birthday was on a Thursday that year, which was the day the juniors competed in Japan, and women’s seniors in Russia. Unless the swap lasted an unnaturally long time, they’d both be back in their own bodies long before the men’s seniors short programs the next day.

Still, Yakov didn’t know that.

When all his coach did was glare, Victor changed the subject. “That reminds me, though. Do you think you could help set something up for me? I want to surprise him with something.”

Yakov’s glare transformed into a slightly less angry frown. “You _do_ realize that it’s _your_ birthday coming up, not his.”

“I know, but I still feel bad about our last swap... I need to make it up to him!”

Yakov hadn’t heard the full details of that swap. As soon as Victor had mentioned that he’d been with Chris, his coach had made it _very_ clear that he didn’t want to hear more.

This time, all Yakov did was roll his eyes. “Alright, let’s hear your plan.”

In the end, he agreed, though only so long as Victor put his phone _away_ during practice, and focus on the Grand Prix Final _first_.

~*~

“Well, it won’t _hurt_ you to focus on the GPF,” Yuuri teased when Victor complained about Yakov’s ‘no phone during practice’ rule during their Skype conversation that evening. “You’re good, but the American skater’s technical components are only a couple of points below yours. If he adds a quad, or you mess up a landing...”

Victor pouted. “Now don’t _you_ start. And besides, I’m getting plenty of practice, even if I _do_ text you on my breaks. So don’t worry, I’ll be sure to win gold for you.”

Yuuri chuckled. “Well, I won’t complain about the extra texts. And I believe in you, Victor.”

Victor smiled at him fondly. “That means a lot to me, Yuuri.”

He watched with amusement as his soulmate blushed, but then noticed something odd behind him.

“Yuuri, did you take down your posters of me?”

“Oh!” Yuuri scratched the back of his head. “A couple of them? I’ve been working on taking them down since our swap, a couple at a time... I know I can’t help that you’ve already seen them, but... Well, it must have been uncomfortable for you to realize your soulmate was that big of a fan.”

Victor raised an eyebrow. “Only you could swap into the middle of a sexual encounter and worry about _me_ being uncomfortable. But in all seriousness? I don’t mind that you’re a fan. If anything I’m flattered.”

Yuuri’s cheeks reddened even more. “That’s good, because I honestly think I’ll always be a fan, but... I should still work on seeing you less like a celebrity and more like a person, right? I don’t know exactly where our bond is going to take us, but being soulmates means that we’re meant for _something_ , and I’d rather that something not be based just on hero-worship.”

Victor’s breath caught in his throat at the words. He hadn’t realize until then just how much he’d needed to hear that from his soulmate. He hadn’t lied when he’d said that he didn’t mind that Yuuri was a fan, but to see Yuuri take that extra step... Victor could count the amount of people who wanted to know Victor-Nikiforov-the-person on one hand.

“I’ll tell you what,” He said once he was sure his voice wouldn’t crack. “Once we meet, you can replace them with selfies of the two of us together.”

Yuuri smiled, wide and bright and genuine, and Victor was fairly certain he could survive solely on that kind of smile from his soulmate.

“So...” Yuuri says after a moment, making Victor realize that he’d been staring. “Um... Back on the topic of the GPF... We haven’t really talked about it since getting to know each other better, but... You’ll be seeing Christophe there, right?”

Victor nodded, anticipating where this was going. Yuuri had told him during their first conversation that he didn’t mind Victor’s sexual relationship with Chris, but with how quickly he and Yuuri had taken to each other, it was possible the other man had changed his mind.

“I just...” Yuuri fidgeted with the cuff of his hoody. “I wanted to let you know that I still stand by what I said before. I realize that we’ve gotten... close. Closer than I ever could have hoped for. But we’re still long distance, and... I want you to enjoy yourself at the GPF. And I know that you enjoy yourself with Christophe, so... Um... I guess what I’m saying is... Have fun?”

Victor blinked at the computer screen. Yuuri _hadn’t_ changed his mind? Victor might have been disappointed at that, had his soulmate not been so endearing in the way he’d said it.

“Did you just basically wish me ‘good sex’?”

Yuuri turned red, but to his credit, didn’t look away like he usually did when embarrassed. “Yes,” he said, nodding. “Yes I did.”

Victor couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, most people would wish me good luck with the competition.”

Yuuri shrugged. “Well... I already know you’re going to win gold... But if you insist: Good luck in the final, Victor.”

~*~

Victor won silver.

He tried not to be too disappointed. He’d won gold the year before, and was _sure_ his programs would have earned him a gold again this year. He’d been so close, too, earning a new personal best on both his short program and free skate, and landing only two points behind the American skater that stood above him on the podium.

 _I should have added another quad_ , he thought to himself. His quad Toe Loop had always been enough before, but clearly it wasn’t, this time. If he’d added that quad Salchow he’d started practicing, he would have won for sure, especially since the gold medallist hadn’t had _any_ quads. Or he could actually listen to Yakov and work on bringing his step sequence to a level 4...

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, making himself smile for the cameras. Yuuri was most likely watching, after all. And while his programs weren’t originally composed with his soulmate in mind, Victor had been thinking of him during his performance. And damn it, he _was_ proud of his performance, despite missing gold.

“Mr. Nikiforov,” a reporter asked him a bit later, during an interview. “While your skating is always amazing, many have noticed that your performances were particularly passionate this weekend. Was this thanks to the energy of the final, or did something else give you that push?”

This time, Victor’s smile was genuine. “Actually, I was lucky enough to have my first swap with my soulmate not too long ago. He’s been very inspiring, and I couldn’t help but think of him while I was skating. I only wish I could have dedicated a gold medal to him.”

“Congratulations!” She replied. “I’m sure he’ll still be very impressed with your silver medal, and this _was_ a personal best for you. And I’m also sure there are a lot of disappointed seventeen year olds watching who were hoping to swap with you on their birthday.” She gave a polite laugh. “Would you care to share more about the lucky man?”

“We’re keeping his identity private for now,” Victor answered. “He’s a figure skater as well, and he’s concerned that he could face accusations of using our association to boost his own fame. Which, of course, would be ridiculous to anyone who’s ever spoken to him for more than a minute. He’s very humble, especially for someone in such a flashy sport.”

“Have you ever skated against him?” She asked.

“Fishing for more information?” He teased. “I’ll give you this one, though. I haven’t faced him as a competitor yet, but I hope to soon. I’ve seen videos of his skating, and it’s... you can’t take your eyes off of him. He’s beautiful.”

“It sounds like you’re already quite smitten with him,” the reporter suggested.

“A little bit,” Victor said with a laugh.

 _A lot_ , he thought to himself.

When Yakov finally relinquished his phone to him after the interview, Victor nervously opened the waiting text from Yuuri. Would his soulmate be disappointed? He’d been so sure that Victor would win gold, after all...

But then he smiled in relief when he saw the actual text.

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_You were beautiful out there._

Victor hurriedly typed out a reply.

 **To: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_I wish I could have won gold for you._

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_You still won my heart._

Victor blinked in surprise. It wasn’t like Yuuri to be so bold. But he didn’t have long to be surprised, as another text quickly followed.

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_IGNORE THAT LAST TEXT. Phichit stole my phone._

He couldn’t help but chuckle as he typed out his reply.

 **To: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_So you mean I_ didn’t _win your heart? D: Yuuri, I’m crushed!_

He watched in amusement as the three dots indicating Yuuri was typing appeared, disappeared, and reappeared again a handful of times in a row. Finally, the reply came in.

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_You didn’t have to. You should know by now that you won it a long time ago..._

Victor beamed, then sent out a string of heart emojis. Yuuri replied with a blushing emoji, and then:

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_In all seriousness, though, you really were beautiful out there, and congratulations on your new personal best._

 **To: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_Thank you!_  
_Also, Yakov is giving me that Look. I should probably go and get ready for the banquet._

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_Have fun!_

~*~

He located Chris at the banquet relatively quickly, and the two toasted their podium placements; Chris having gotten bronze. They chatted amongst themselves in between talking to sponsors, and it wasn’t long before the chatting devolved into flirting.

It was a casual back and forth that came easily to both of them, but despite the familiarity, Chris soon seemed to pick up that Victor wasn’t quite as into it as he normally was.

He smirked, nudging Victor teasingly. “Someone’s distracted. Let me guess: Can’t stop thinking about Yuuri?”

Victor opened his mouth to give him the same vague reply he’d given the press, but then changed his mind. Chris was his friend, after all.

“Chris, I think I’m in love.”

The other man didn’t even look surprised. He chuckled lightly. “I expected as much. You do tend to feel things quite strongly, Victor. So is it safe to assume that our flirting tonight is just for fun, then? I don’t mind if it’s not going anywhere, but I’d prefer to know in advance.”

“Yuuri’s actually given us his blessings!” Victor informed him with a wag of his eyebrows.

“So he said during your swap.” Chris took a sip of his champagne and looked at Victor curiously. “That’s lovely of him, but do _you_ want to? You just told me you’re in love with him. If you don’t want to have sex with me, I’ll honestly understand.”

Victor paused, looking Chris over. It was true that he’d been distracted during their flirting due to his mind continuing to wander towards his soulmate... But it wasn’t as if he’d suddenly stopped finding Chris attractive. There was still a current of sexual chemistry between them, and Victor wasn’t _opposed_ to acting on it. But...

“I do want to...” He admitted. “I’m just worried that my focus might... wander. It really wouldn’t be fair to you if I suddenly start thinking about Yuuri while I’m fooling around with you.”

“Hmm..” Chris brought a finger to his chin and tapped it thoughtfully. “It would be far more interesting if we could get him involved somehow.”

Victor rolled his eyes. “He’s on another _continent_ , Chris. Even _if_ he was interested in a threesome, that’s not exactly possible right now.”

“I just meant we could get him on webcam and have him watch us.”

Victor opened his mouth to turn the suggestion down, but found that he couldn’t quite get the words out. The mental image that had formed in his mind was rather... interesting.

“Oh, you _like_ that idea. I can tell.” Chris leaned closer into Victor’s space, lowering his voice. “What do you think? Do you want your soulmate to watch while I fuck you? Do you want him to see you fall apart on my cock?”

“Fuck,” Victor whispered, his face heating up. He _did_ want that. The problem was, he didn’t think _Yuuri_ would want that. Why would Yuuri want to _watch_ Victor have sex with someone else when he’d already _experienced_ it during their swap? As much as he claimed to be fine with it now, it couldn’t have been a pleasant experience at the time, so why invite him to watch something that would just remind him of it?

 _But it would be by choice, this time, not just suddenly and without warning... Shouldn’t I let_ him _decide, instead of just assuming?_

Still... Not counting the swap, he and Yuuri hadn’t had any sort of sexual experience together yet, not even by text or webcam. And Victor _really_ didn’t want to share their first time with anyone else.

“Well?” Chris asked.

“I...” Victor cleared his throat. “As fun as that sounds... Yuuri and I aren’t really ‘there’ yet.”

Chris nodded and pulled away slightly. “Of course.”

Victor quickly grabbed his sleeve to keep him from pulling away further. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want you to fuck me. It just means that Yuuri won’t be involved... This time.”

Chris outright laughed. “ _T’es mignon_ , Victor. Alright. Meet me back in my room, and we’ll just _pretend_ that he’s watching me take you apart.”

Okay, that? That, Victor could definitely get behind.

~*~

“Vitya, you idiot!”

Victor sighed as Yakov marched over to him. They’d only been back in Russia for a day, and Victor had only just walked into the rink. What could he have possibly done in a day that would have Yakov upset with him?

“Don’t give me that sigh!” Yakov shouted, shoving a phone in his face. “Look at this!” On the phone screen was a picture of him and Chris at the banquet, halfway hidden behind a plant and pretty obviously making out.

Victor frowned, confused. “So the paparazzi got a picture of me kissing Chris. So what? It’s not like it’s the first time. I would have figured that was old news by now.”

Yakov glared up at him. “It would have been, had you not announced to the world that you’d found your soulmate earlier that same day!”

Victor waved him off. “Yuuri gave his blessings. In fact, he encouraged it! And we’re not even together, so I don’t see what the big deal is if I fool around with someone else.”

“Then you’d better make an official statement about it!” Yakov ordered, poking Victor in the chest. “Right now, after your interview made you look like some idiot in love, having your picture taken kissing someone else just makes you look like an insensitive cheater!”

“Fine,” Victor agreed with another sign, taking his phone out of his pocket and opening the twitter app.

 **Victor Nikiforov**  
_@v-nikiforov_  
To clarify, my soulmate and I aren’t together (yet ;) ). He’s aware of, and is okay with me kissing other people.

He showed the message to Yakov, who gave a grudging nod of approval, before posting it. He then shoved the phone back into his back pocket. “Are you done yelling, now?”

Yakov huffed. “About that, yes. I make no promises in advance when it comes to your step sequence. I told you you shouldn’t rely on quads, and yet here you are, beaten at the GPF by someone with no quads in his program–”

Victor tuned him out as he made his way to the locker room.

~*~

 **From: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_“Yet”?_

 **To: Katsuki Yuuri**  
_;)_

~*~

“So do you think I’ll meet any of your friends or family during our next swap?” Victor asked over Skype that night.

“Victor...”

“I mean, you’ll be in Japan for Nationals, right? How far will you be from your home town?”

“Victor, are we not going to talk about your tweet?”

Victor sighed. “I don’t see what the big deal is. I’ve always hoped to have a romantic connection with my soulmate, and I’m far from the only one. And even though we’re not there yet, is it so unusual for me to still hope things go in that direction?”

Yuuri blushed. “I’ve always hoped that too... And still do. I guess it’s just the first time you’ve been quite so clear about it since learning that your soulmate is, well... me.”

Victor touched his laptop’s screen gently. “Then I’ll be perfectly clear. I _want_ things to eventually be romantic between us, Yuuri. And not just because we’re soulmates. I _like_ you. A lot. I like you more with every little thing I learn about you.”

Yuuri looked away, embarrassed. “Even though I’m all...?” He vaguely gestured to himself.

Victor frowned. “What do you mean?”

Yuuri sighed. “I just mean... You’re _Victor Nikiforov_. You’re gorgeous and talented, and I’m just... plain and mediocre.”

Victor’s eyes widened. He’d learned over the past couple of weeks that Yuuri had a lot of insecurities, but it still surprised him when it came up. “Yuuri, you’re _amazing_. If anyone ever tries to tell you that you’re not _also_ gorgeous and talented, send them to me and I’ll... I don’t know, I’ll fight them or something.”

Yuuri snorted, and Victor’s heart lifted at the sound. “I can’t imagine you fighting anyone. You’d get your ass kicked.”

Victor chuckled. “Well, it’s the thought that counts, right?”

Yuuri shook his head, grinning. “Please don’t get beaten up over me.”

“I make no promises,” Victor teased with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “Now about our swap?”

“Right,” Yuuri hummed. “Well, my parents need to look after the inn, so they won’t be able to get away. The holidays tend to be quite busy, so I don’t think my sister will be able to go either... But Minako-sensei will be there, and either Yuuko-chan or Nishigori-kun. Probably Yuu-chan. She’s always been a fan of yours, too.”

Victor nodded, getting exited. Yuuri had talked about his friends before, and he was eager to meet them. “Will she have the triplets with her?”

Yuuri frowned. “Victor. She’s not going to drag three babies out that late at night.”

“Why not?”

“Because babies need to _sleep_ , Victor. And even _one_ baby is a handful, let alone three.”

Victor pouted and sighed, but dropped the subject. He supposed that made sense. “What about Phichit? Will he be there? I liked him.”

Yuuri laughed and shook his head. “No, he can’t afford to travel outside of his own competitions. But I’ll be sure to tell him you like him. Not that he needs his confidence stroked, if all the selfies on his twitter are any judge...”

Victor chuckled at that. Phichit did indeed post a _lot_ of selfies, often dragging Yuuri along to pose with him. Victor had started following his twitter just for that reason.

“So that’s Minako, Yuuko, and Celestino who’ll be there? I’ve met Celestino before, though...”

Yuuri shrugged. “I know, it’s not a lot... But with the holidays...”

“Oh, no, I understand!” Victor exclaimed. “It’s just bad timing. On my end, my family doesn’t get out to my competitions usually, but I can see about having you meet some of my rink mates.”

 _Plus my surprise_ , He thought to himself.

While the swap was still another two weeks away, Victor still found himself practically bouncing in anticipation. He couldn’t wait to know how Yuuri would react to his surprise, and only regretted that he wouldn’t be there to see it, himself. Maybe he could ask Georgi to record it...? That would be the next best thing to being there himself, he supposed...

“Victor?”

“Hm?” He snapped out of his thoughts to look back at the screen.

“You seem distracted...” Yuuri mused.

“Just looking forward to our swap,” Victor answered, not technically lying. “It should be fun!”

Yuuri gave him a sly smile. “Well, it won’t be as _interesting_ as last time, but I’m sure it’ll still be fun.”

Victor’s eyebrows rose, impressed that Yuuri managed to say that without blushing.

Or... almost.

This boy was going to be the death of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes about the "open relationship" tag:
> 
> Yuuri encourages Victor to continue his no-strings sexual relationship with Christophe, which Victor does. While Victor and Yuuri aren't in a romantic or sexual relationship with each other yet, they both want to be and are clearly headed in that direction. Depending on how future chapters go, it's likely that this will continue once Yuuri and Victor do establish a relationship between each other (though mostly just while they're long-distance), but this will ALWAYS be with Yuuri's knowledge and consent.
> 
> Translations:
> 
> T'es mignon - You're cute


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE: I've made some changes to the earlier chapters.
> 
> Most of the changes are minor (changing FaceTime to Skype), but I’ve also added a few clarifying paragraphs in the first chapter both when Yuuri first swaps, and during his conversation with Christophe. 
> 
> I also realized that I somehow thought that Russian Nationals were on a different weekend as Japanese Nationals during the year I set this in (2008), but I must have gotten something mixed up, because they are, in fact, on the same weekend, so I made some minor changes to acknowledge that, as well. I'm improvising on the daily schedule of the competitions, though, since those don't seem to be available online.
> 
> OTHER NOTES: I want to thank everyone for remaining civil and respectful in the criticism on the previous chapter, but I can only have the same debate so many times before it exhausts me, so can we just... be done with discussing whether or not these characters would be okay with an open relationship or not? I've updated the tags and warnings as best as I could, and I'm bringing out the old 90s "Don't Like; Don't Read" mantra. Hopefully I've covered my bases, and please let me know if there’s something else you think I should tag. 
> 
> Less Important Note: I’m borrowing Kassian Trovosky from the In the Company of Shadows book series, because Victor needed an extra rinkmate, and it was too minor of a roll to create a whole new OC for.

“How long until you and Victor switch?” Yuuko asked excitedly as she sat next to Yuuri on the hotel bed. “I can’t _wait_ to meet him!”

Yuuri checked the time on his phone. “It should be around 7:25, so... ten minutes?”

“Good,” Minako said, leaning against the wall. “I need to give him a piece of my mind.”

Yuuri sighed. “Minako-sensei...”

“Don’t ‘Minako-sensei’ me!” she scolded. “He doesn’t get to walk all over you just because he’s a celebrity.”

Yuuri brought up a hand to massage the bridge of his nose. “For the last time, I’m _not_ letting him walk all over me.” Minako hadn’t taken the media scandal surrounding the picture of Victor and Christophe’s kiss, and Victor’s answering tweet, very well. No matter what Yuuri said, she seemed convince that he was being taken advantage of. “He and Christophe have history, and I didn’t want to get in between that, so I encouraged them to continue. I wouldn’t have told him that if I wasn’t okay with it. And his tweet was right, we _aren’t_ together. At that point we didn’t even know each other that well, yet. We’d only been talking for two weeks.”

“There’s still something that rubs me the wrong way about the whole thing,” she huffed. “He gushes about you to the press, then gets photographed kissing someone else and dismisses your relationship with a tweet? It doesn’t sound like he’s taking your bond very seriously.”

“I’ve never known Nikiforov to take _anything_ seriously,” Celestino pointed out. “He doesn’t tend to think things through.”

Yuuri had to chuckle at that last bit. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that. Now Minako, can you _please_ not yell at my soulmate too much once he gets here? It’s his birthday, after all. Plus he gets stuck with my anxiety when we swap.” He knew that Minako’s concern was because she cared about him, but it wasn’t fair to Victor for her to not give him the benefit of the doubt. Especially considering how _happy_ Yuuri had been since he and Victor had started talking.

While he’d originally assumed that he’d be too awkward and shy to properly talk to Victor, he’d been pleasantly surprised to find their conversations flowing as easily as if they’d known each other forever. Not that Victor couldn’t still turn him into a blushing mess when he tried – and try he did – but Yuuri enjoyed the teasing, and had found himself starting to tease back.

Sure, he still occasionally found himself staring at his few remaining posters of his soulmate and fighting down a wave of panic that he was going to completely mess this up, but those thoughts always vanished whenever Yuuri actually _talked_ to the other man. The real Victor wasn’t a poster on his wall. He was excitable and absent minded, flashing a heart shaped smile over their Skype calls while he talked about the mischief that Makkachin had gotten into that week.

Minako crossed her arms and sighed. “I promise not to yell at him the _whole_ time he’s here. I’ll let Yuuko and Celestino talk to him first.”

It was probably the best he was going to get.

He stood up and began pacing in anticipation. He checked the time on his phone again to find a waiting message from Victor, and smiled when he opened it to find a heart emoji.

When he looked back up, he was at an ice rink.

His grin widened and he looked around to see a few familiar faces. He recognised Victor’s coach, Yakov Feltsman, and two of Victor’s rinkmates: Georgi Popovich, who’d joined seniors at the same time as him, but had always been in his shadow, and Kassian Trovosky, who had been Russia’s top senior skater before Victor had come in, and who was rumoured to be retiring soon. Georgi was holding up a phone, possibly recording.

“Ah... Hello!” Yuuri started bowing, then almost stumbled when he realized he was on skates. He barely caught himself, then straightened out and scratched the back of his head nervously. “Sorry, um... I’m Yuuri. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Yakov held out a hand to shake. “Yakov Feltsman. This is Georgi Popovich and Kassian Trovosky.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” He skated over to them to shake each of their hands, then looked around at the rink. “Was Victor practicing?”

Kassian chuckled. “As if he could focus on practicing when he knew he was going to switch today.”

Yakov rolled his eyes. “Actually, Vitya pulled some strings to get the venue to open a spare rink for the swap. He thought you might like to take the opportunity to skate in his body.”

Yuuri’s eyes widened. “Wait...What?! But I... What if I fall and injure him somehow? He has his short program tomorrow!”

“I was concerned about that at first, too,” Yakov admitted. “But he showed me some of your performances, and while you do have some trouble with jumps, you can control your falls well enough that you shouldn’t give him more than a few bruises. And it’s not as if he’s a stranger to those.”

Yuuri almost laughed at the suggestion. Victor? Falling?

Yakov seemed to read the sentiment on his face anyway. “You think the famous Victor Nikiforov never falls during practice? Perhaps less than most, granted... But that’s where an opportunity for _you_ comes in. Consider this: You’re in Vitya’s body right now, with all of his physical abilities and, most importantly, his muscle memory. Wouldn’t that increase your chances of landing your jumps?”

That... Wasn’t a bad point.

Plus, he recalled again how calm he’d felt despite the situation during his last swap, and Phichit’s accounts of Victor having an anxiety attack back in Yuuri’s body. If his nerves were linked to his own body, and he could skate now without them...

He took off down the ice and tried a single toe loop, just to test out how Victor’s body moved compared to his own. He landed it easily, so he tried a double flip next, and then a triple loop. Landing all of them, his face broke into a grin. The power and height in Victor’s jumps was amazing. He followed it up with a couple of his favourite spins as a thought came to him.

_I wonder if..._

He’d been having some trouble with his triple axle and quad toe loop, which had been holding back his scores in seniors so far. But he knew Victor could land both of them easily. Riding the adrenaline, he launched into a triple axle and, landing it cleanly, followed it up with a quad toe loop.

When he successfully landed the quad, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh of pure _joy_. He’d always enjoyed skating, of course, but it had been a long time since he’d had so much _fun_ with it.

He heard some applause, and turned to see Victor’s coach and rinkmates watching him proudly. Georgi was still holding the phone up. Yuuri skated back up to them in excitement.

“That was _amazing_!” he exclaimed. “Did you see that? Victor is so talented!”

“Not Victor,” Yakov shook his head. “That was you. _You_ landed those jumps.”

Yuuri blushed. “Well... Yes. But using Victor’s body. I couldn’t do those last two on my own... Not so easily anyway.”

“Maybe not easily,” Yakov admitted. “But you obviously know how. Muscle memory helps, but it isn’t everything. Don’t discount your own skills.”

Yuuri hummed, not sure how much he believed that. He’d landed the triple axle and quad toe loop in practice before, but even then his success rate was low, especially on the quad.

“You know,” Kassian said with a grin, holding up an mp3 player, “Victor downloaded the music from your short program and free skate this season. Did you want to give those a try?”

He glanced over at Georgi again, vaguely recognising the phone he was recording with as Victor’s. “I suppose Victor wanted to see how I’d do?”

Georgi shrugged. “He wanted to see your reaction, but I thought he might want to see you actually skate, too. I can delete it if you’re uncomfortable, though.”

Yuuri shook his head. Actually, the idea that Victor would watch this later somehow encouraged him. He leaned forward to look directly at the camera. “Watch me closely, Victor. Don’t take your eyes off me.”

He glanced back at Kassian and nodded. “We’ll start with my short program?”

Kassian did a fist pump, then proceeded to plug the mp3 player into a speaker while Yuuri skated to the centre of the ice.

It ended up being more difficult to skate his program than Yuuri anticipated. While Victor's body knew how to jump, it had been practicing a completely different set of programs for the past few months. The transitions between moves, while technically accurate, ended up stiff and dry from Yuuri needing to _think_ about which moves came next instead of just letting himself feel the music.

 _I guess there’s a downside to having someone else’s muscle memory, even if that someone is more skilled than me,_ he thought to himself. But... He _had_ landed all of his jumps, which gave him a boost of motivation.

As soon as he finished, he turned to Kassian. “Can I try that again? I think I've got a better idea of how Victor's body moves, now.”

“Sure,” Kassian answered with a shrug, while Yakov held up a water bottle. Yuuri skated over to drink his fill before returning to the centre of the ice.

His second attempt was _much_ more successful. He still had to focus more than usual, but was able to let the music flow through him more. It still left him wanting, though, so he asked Kassian to play the music a third time.

Finally, it felt right. He skated back to the side of the rink to accept more water from Yakov, then asked Kassian to put on his free skate music.

Kassian, for his part, raised an eyebrow. “Did you want to take a break or something first?”

Yuuri blinked, then paused to assess his current state. He was more out of breath than he expected to be after just going through his short program three times, now that he thought about it. Still, he figured he could get through at least one run through of his free skate.

“I’m good,” he concluded before handing the water bottle back to Yakov and returning to the centre ice.

The first part of his free skate went well enough. It was only when he got to the jumps in the second half that he started noticing just _how_ tired he was. He touched down on his triple axle, and his triple flip turned into a double. He fell on his quad toe loop, and while he got back up, he ended the program more exhausted than he expected.

When he joined the others back at the side of the rink he shook his head as he once again accepted the water bottle from Yakov, baffled. “Are you sure Victor wasn’t practicing before our swap?”

Kassian chuckled. “Just some warm ups. I told you you should have taken a break. Victor’s good, but it’s not like he has inhuman stamina or anything.”

Yuuri wiped his brow. “I wouldn’t say inhuman... _I_ can usually go on a bit longer than that...” He let out a chuckle. “And I know my stamina is good, but I doubt it’s better than Victor’s.”

Georgi raised an eyebrow. “How long, exactly, do you usually go without breaks?”

Yuuri shrugged as he finished off the water. Honestly, he was bad at keeping track of time once he got focused. “I suppose... Normally I’d manage at least one more run?”

Kassian whistled. “Kid. I’ve got news for you: Your stamina is better than Victor’s. He usually just marks his jumps when doing back to back runs like that.”

Yuuri flushed. “Well... Maybe, but his programs are more intensive than mine.” There was no way he was actually _better_ at something than Victor.

Kassian just shook his head with an amused smile. “Whatever you say, kid. But either way, the most important question is: Did you have fun?”

Yuuri nodded enthusiastically, all questions of comparing himself to Victor set aside for now. “I did! This was amazing! Victor really set this all up just for me?”

“He’s very fond of you,” Georgi informed him, his eyes staring off into the distance. “Ah, a soulmate’s love really is something... It’s almost a shame the swaps stop after you meet. I’d love to surprise Anya with something nice...”

Yuuri found himself nodding. He wanted to meet Victor in person more than anything, and knew Victor felt the same, but after today, he really wouldn’t have minded if the swaps would continue, no matter how inconvenient they could be. He really wanted to surprise Victor with something nice in return.

 _Well, I’ll just have to find another way to surprise him,_ he thought to himself. Nothing came to him right then, but he was determined to think of something.

Yakov huffed. “A soulmate’s love isn’t everything, as my ex-wife and I discovered. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the two of you, but be careful not to rush into something you’re not ready for.”

Yuuri glanced over at Yakov and nodded seriously, while Kassian muttered “buzzkill” under his breath. But Yuuri knew it was good advice. He’d heard more than one story of soulmates jumping into a relationship immediately and burning out the initial passion, only to find out that they couldn’t stand each other.

“I know,” he answered. “We _are_ trying to take things slow, though I’ll admit it didn’t take us long to get quite close...”

“At least _you_ seem sensible...” Yakov muttered, and Yuuri didn’t have the heart to tell him that when it came to Victor, Yuuri’s sense went out the window.

He _did_ , however, make eye contact with Georgi, and then Kassian, who both sported a grin to indicate that they had a good idea of Yuuri’s unspoken thoughts.

“So, did you want to try your free skate again?” Kassian asked him, eager for the subject change.

Yuuri had to take a moment to properly assess just how tired he was. Had it been his own body, he wouldn’t have had any issues pushing himself, but he didn’t want to risk injuring Victor due to over-exhaustion.

“Yes, but I’ll just mark my jumps this time,” he admitted.

“See?” Yakov said to Kassian. “Sensible.”

He skated back to centre ice, and took off into his free skate once Kassian started the music. He let himself relax into it, not concerning himself with errors like he had before. This wasn’t practice, after all; It was about enjoying being in Victor’s body.

He entered the finishing pose with a sense of calm and serenity, taking a deep breath of fresh cold air into Victor’s lungs...

...And then exhaling from his own, back at the hotel in Nagano.

He brought a hand to his mouth, grinning madly. “Oh, _wow_.”

~*~

It was only after he ushered everyone out of his hotel room that he opened up his laptop and sent a Skype message to Victor. He didn’t know if his soulmate had a computer with internet nearby, but Yuuri was eager to speak to him.

To his delight, a call came through within a few minutes, and Yuuri answered with a large grin.

“Victor, that was _amazing_!” He exclaimed. “I can’t believe you went through the trouble in setting that up for me... And the day before a competition, at that!”

Victor chuckled lightly. The background behind him didn’t seem to be a hotel room; It looked more like a lobby. Perhaps the rink he was at had wi-fi? “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. You really gave my body quite the workout!”

Yuuri’s smile fell a bit. “I didn’t do too much, did I?”

Victor shook his head. “Nothing worst than I’ve done myself, don’t worry. I’ll take a nice hot shower to rest my muscles tonight, and be in top shape for my short program tomorrow!”

Yuuri sighed in relief. “Good. Did... Um... You probably haven’t had time to look at the video that Georgi took, yet. I hope I didn’t embarrass myself too much in it...”

“Yuuuuriiii!” Victor teased. “I’m sure you didn’t! I didn’t watch the video yet because my phone battery was low, but it’s charging now. Is it alright if I watch it with you on the line?”

Yuuri blushed at the thought. At the time, he’d enjoyed the thought of Victor watching him, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to be present when he did. “I... I don’t know... I feel like that would just be awkward...”

“I’ll watch it later, then.” Victor assured him. “Actually, that might be better, otherwise I’ll just keep putting this conversation off... I hate to ruin the good mood, but there’s something your friend Minako mentioned that we should probably talk about...”

Yuuri groaned. “Listen, whatever Minako-sensei said...”

Victor shook his head. “No, she was right. Maybe not about everything – You said that you’re okay with me and Chris, and I’m going to trust that you’re being honest with me about that, and that you’ll tell me if that changes – But I’ve been careless with how I’ve talked about my soulmate, about _you_ , on social media, and I want to apologize for that.”

Yuuri shrugged awkwardly, not sure where this was going. Sure, the skating forums had had a field day when Victor had made that one tweet following the leaked picture of him and Christophe, and there were a lot of people who were speculating less-than-flattering things about what kind of person his soulmate must be... That he was weak willed and didn’t care about Victor, or that he was a pervert who got off on sharing his soulmate with just anyone. But Yuuri hadn’t been letting any of it bother him. Mostly it seemed like people were jealous, and were taking it out on someone who was still anonymous to them.

“People are making a bigger deal about it than it really is,” he said, “And it’s not like anyone knows that I’m your soulmate, anyway.”

“But they’ll know who you are eventually, right?” Victor asked. “I know you don’t want to go public yet, but... I don’t want to keep you a secret forever. And we might not even get a say in when we do; There aren’t that many male figure skaters that I haven’t competed against and who’ve recently turned 18.”

 _That_ was uncomfortably true. Along with the speculations on what kind of person Victor’s soulmate was, there were even more people trying to narrow down exactly _who_ he was. Yuuri had seen his name come up more than once – A lot of people had noticed a change in Victor’s demeanour between his short program and free skate at the NHK trophy, and had made the connection to Yuuri’s birthday that weekend.

“I just...” Victor looked down, his face stricken. “I don’t usually pay attention to rumours on the internet, but Minako showed me some of the forum threads and... God, Yuuri, it kills me what some of them are saying about you because of what _I_ did.”

“Victor, I...” Yuuri reached for the screen for a moment, then dropped his hand. “People are going to talk and speculate no matter what. Even if you _were_ more careful, they’d still find something.”

“I know, but...” He sighed. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t owe you an apology, or that I _shouldn’t_ be more careful. So... I’m sorry, Yuuri.”

Yuuri shook his head, his expression fond. He knew Victor wasn’t going to let it go. “Apology accepted.”

Victor looked relieved at having that off his chest. “Thank you. Okay. Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, how are you feeling about your short program tomorrow?”

Yuuri winced. “About the same as I always am. Nervous and anxious.”

“Yakov said you did really well when you performed it in my body.”

“Well, yes,” Yuuri rolled his eyes. “But that was with _your_ physical skills. I’m still having trouble with my jumps when I practice in my own body.”

Victor tutted. “Except now you know what it feels like to do the program cleanly. You can use that to improve.”

Yuuri opened his mouth to object, but then stopped as he thought of Victor’s words.

The truth was, he had a point. If Yuuri could channel even a little bit of the confidence he’d felt in his soulmate’s body when he performed...

“Is that why you set that up?” He asked curiously. “As a sort of... pseudo-coaching session?”

Victor shrugged. “Mostly I set it up because I thought you’d enjoy it, but I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind that it could help you, too. If you skate the way I know you can at Nationals, then you’ll qualify for Worlds.”

He didn’t say more, but Yuuri could follow his train of thoughts. If he qualified for Worlds, then they could meet. They could skate on the same ice, and watch each other skate in person.

“You really think I can?” Yuuri asked.

“You have the skill to do it,” Victor answered. “And I... I’ve felt your anxiety. I know it won’t just go away, but maybe... Maybe having skated in my body will help. Let it give you that extra boost of confidence.”

Yuuri wasn’t sure that would be enough. It was easy to theorize about what _could_ help, but it was impossible to say what would _actually_ help once his anxiety took control.

“I guess we’ll see tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I've been way busier with school than I anticipated.
> 
> And I keep meaning to mention, but while I don't OFTEN post stuff about my writing on my tumblr, I've created a tag for this fic if anyone wanted to follow it here: http://anidragon.tumblr.com/tagged/soulmate-on-the-rocks  
> Or there's also just my general writing tags http://anidragon.tumblr.com/tagged/anidragon's-writing for actual works, and http://anidragon.tumblr.com/tagged/anidragon-writes for general posts about writing. (Also sorry for the long links you need to copy and paste, as I apparently fail at html)
> 
> You can also feel free to message me on there if you wanted to.


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